Martini's

Quick post,

Went to Martini's last night for dinner, for those of you that don't live in KW, Martini's is a member of The Charcoal Group, a group of restaurants that produce top notch food in well decorated sometimes ornate environments. Take for example Wildcraft's 2 story wine rack or the 42' TV's in front of your urinal in The Bauer Kitchen (not sure why they did that, there's no way that you can figure out what's on TV other than eye strain).
To the topic at hand; there is only really two reasons that I'm bringing up this restaurant experience.
1) The crème brûlée was prepared perfectly; wonderfully creamy texture, sugary shell and some nice flavor contrasts on the plate. By far the best crème brûlée I've had!
2) Just like Sole their risotto is boring.... Before I beat it up, the pan greens were a nice touch and the tomato fondue, not sure why it's called a fondue; it's more like a well seasoned sauce, anyway it was what made the risotto palpable. The risotto on the other hand was bland, unseasoned, nothing to write home about. But as before, what can you expect of a risotto that was made in less than fifteen minutes. No time to add enough stock to achieve the right amount of salty, no time to toast the rice, no time to make risotto with any love. I hate some of the compromises that need to be made to produce restaurant food. If you have an item such as risotto that needs time, attention, and patience to produce, please take the time to do it properly, I'll wait. Call the risotto a special so that you can make a lot of it throughout the night and take it down once you run out. I've cooked for a lot of dinner parties and a few large events and for my wow items that are meant to excite people, taking the time to make sure it's perfect is essential. Some people may grumble and have another oiled bread or satay skewer; however, having them savor that item when it arrives is well worth it. But I digress, more from the Cobb tomorrow.

Cheers,

Appetizer idea - Dirty vodka martini with three blue cheese stuffed olives, wowza!